1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to seat sliding devices of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to an arrangement for mounting the seat sliding device on the vehicle floor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical seat sliding device hitherto used for motor vehicles comprises generally a pair of parallel stationary rails, a pair of parallel movable rails slidably interlocked with the stationary rails and mounting thereon a seat, a position lock device for locking the movable rails at a desired fore-and-aft position relative to the stationary rails and a control handle mounted beneath the seat for manually controlling the position lock device. Usually, a seatbelt anchor is fixed to a rear end of either the seat or one of the movable rails for anchoring a seatbelt which is associated with the seat.
The stationary rails are fixedly disposed on a vehicle floor, so that the seat along with the movable rails can move forward or rearward to a desired locked position relative to the stationary rails.
However, due to its inherent construction, the arrangement for mounting such seat sliding device on the vehicle floor, which has been hitherto employed, shows the following undesired phenomenon particularly when the seat assumes its rearmost locked position.
That is, when the seat assumes the rearmost locked position, the movable rails take their rearmost positions having their rear ends projected by a certain degree beyond the rear ends of the stationary rails. Thus, if, under this condition, the vehicle is subjected to a sudden stop or vehicle collision, the rear end portions of the movable rails tend to rise separating from the stationary rails due to a marked angular moment suddenly applied thereto. Of course, the separation of the movable rails from the stationary rails brings about a dangerous separation of the seat from the vehicle floor.
One of measures for eliminating this drawback is to use stationary rails which are longer than the movable rails. According to this measure, the rear ends of the movable rails can be still placed on the stationary rails keeping the interlocked engagement with the stationary rails even when the movable rails assume their rearmost positions.
However, this measure brings about another problem. That is, when the seat is moved forward from the rearmost position, the rear portions of the stationary rails become exposed to a rear seat passenger's foot space. The exposure of the stationary rails not only lowers the external appearance of the seat assembly on the vehicle floor but also interferes with the ingress and egress of the rear seat passengers.